If she had to do it all over again, Jennifer Ford says, she might not have been as willing to serve as a juror in the Casey Anthony murder trial.

She was kicked out of her house the day after the verdict. Swarms of media have tried to get interviews with her. There has been nationwide scorn for the 12-member jury panel that cleared Anthony of first-degree murder and other felony charges in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

“If I knew then what I know now, I might not have been so honest,” says Ford, a 32-year-old nursing student. “I didn’t know the whole world was watching and that everyone had their mind made up on what the verdict was. I didn’t understand the magnitude of it.”

Now, however, she does.

For the woman who in May hadn’t even heard about the case when it took two weeks to seat a jury from Pinellas County, it has been an eye-opening experience.

“It’s just overwhelming,” says Ford, who has lost about 10 pounds from all the stress related to the case.

Reporters were at her house before she even arrived home from Orlando after the six-week trial. The same was true at her mother’s residence.

When friends came out of the house, they were under siege from reporters. So was the air-conditioning repairman.

“I was pretty much forced to talk,” she says of an interview she gave to ABC News in which she said there was not enough evidence to convict Anthony of more-serious charges. “They wouldn’t go away.”

If she had it her way, Ford says, she would not have given that interview – in which she returned to Orlando for a chat with a network reporter.

“I don’t think you should have to talk about it,” she says. “It wasn’t my idea. It certainly wasn’t what I wanted. I just wanted my freedom. If that is what I had to do, so be it.”

Ford blames the media for much of what has happened after the verdict that led to much anger and many protests.

“I think the media helped them to determine what their thoughts are,” she says. “I think the media helped to determine the case before the jury saw it.”

Ford says she hopes to never again see a criminal case from the jury box.

Casey Anthonymay be in Columbus, OH this AM, and if she is … she can get police protection, but it’s going to cost her.

The Columbus PD tells TMZ … they have a Special Duty program, which allows people in their fine city to hire off duty cops for protection, and that’s what Casey would have to do if she wants someone to guard her from the angry mob.

We’re told, however, if there is a specific, real threat … the PD would treat her the way they would anyone else and provide appropriate protection, without cost.

It may well be that Casey did not get on the Ohio-bound jet this AM (an airport official says the plane was carrying golfers) but the drill will be the same pretty much anywhere she goes — if there’s a real threat, cops will provide protection … whether they think she killed her child or not.

“I figured this all out ten minutes after she got out of jail she was headed to Ohio. I then saw a feed on KTLA of the airport with the N Number N145GM, which I then tracked, and the proof is on my facebook page which posted it. SO MTO, how about you credit me……

Here is what I posted over 10 hours ago…

“So, I’m watching the Car chase in LA going on 2 hours now… And they break to the Casey Anthony release, KTLA shows a feed from Orlando, and it shows her going to an airport, KORL. They showed briefly the N Number of the Lear, a 2008 Lear 45.Anyway it flew down from Ohio 2 days ago out of KCMH. 10 hours ago · Like”

What budget crisis, we have money to burn. SICK!!!

The federal government helped fund a study that examined what effect a gay man’s penis size has on his sex life and general well-being.

The study was among several backed by the National Institutes of Health that have come under scrutiny from a group claiming the agency is wasting valuable tax dollars at a time when the country is trying to control its debt. This particular research resulted in a 2009 report titled, “The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men.”

The study reported, among its findings, that gay men with “below average penises” were more likely to assume a “bottom” sexual position, while those with “above average penises” were more likely to assume a “top” sexual position. Those with average penises identified themselves as “versatile” in the bedroom.

Though it’s difficult to trace exactly how much federal funding went to the project, the study was one of many linked to an $899,769 grant in 2006. The grant was administered by NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, and went first to a group called Public Health Solutions and a researcher with the National Development and Research Institutes before going to individual researchers.

Those researchers then compiled data from a survey of more than 1,000 gay and bisexual men at events in New York City for the gay community.

“This country is broke and we cannot spend money on this kind of stuff,” said Andrea Lafferty, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, which drew attention to the report as part of a six-month investigation into NIH grants for examples of “institutional waste.”

“We’re spending money on wacky stuff,” Lafferty said.

But one of the researchers involved with the report told FoxNews.com that NIH funding was only used to help “analyze and write up” data that had already been collected without the use of taxpayer funds.

“The data were not collected using taxpayer funds,” Jeffrey Parsons, a professor with Hunter College, said in an email. “NIH funds were not used to measure anyone’s penis size.”

He said part of the 2006 grant went toward the primary author’s post-survey analysis as part of his postdoctoral fellowship to “better inform sexual health promotion efforts.”

Parsons took issue with Lafferty’s description of the grant.

A Traditional Values Coalition release stated that at least $9.4 million went to a 10-year study that included the penis-size research — but Parsons said it appears that references a much broader “post-doctoral training program” of which the penis-study funding was a “small” part.

Other studies stemming from the same 2006 grant examined topics ranging from the drug market in Houston following Hurricane Katrina to the connection between contraceptives and STD prevention in Madagascar.

“To suggest that 9.4 million dollars was spent to study penis sizes is factually inaccurate and simply designed to create news,” Parsons wrote.

The study, which last year was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, claimed there previously had been “little research among men who have sex with men assessing the association between penis size and socio-sexual health.”

The study found that men with larger penises were more likely to contract certain sexually transmitted diseases. It also found that men with above-average penises enjoyed more satisfaction with their lifestyle.

The original survey had a relatively high response rate — with 83 percent of those approached agreeing to participate. “As an incentive, those who completed the survey were given a voucher for free admission to a movie,” the study said.

Lafferty’s group drew attention to several other studies Monday that it claimed were “bizarre” in the current fiscal climate. Among them was one that asked individuals to “mail in their toenails” to measure “toenail nicotine,” according to the values coalition.

“The president has said he’s going to hunt down waste. Well, I’m going to give it to him on a platter,” Lafferty said.

After working hard to compile a list of Obama’s rather questionable record of fiscal promises and actual executions, the gist of which is represented best by the violent clash between myth and realty in Christina Romer’s “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” whose epic failure is defined by one simple chart, we were disappointed to learn that Paul Ryan had already done this. And leaving Paul Ryan’s politics aside, the facts do speak themselves. They speak even louder when one considers the din raised by the same president who back in 2006 said: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” Indeed they do president Obama. Indeed they do. So without further ado…

Despite newfound concern with the debt overhang stifling economic growth, President Obama’s record falls far short of his rhetoric. Let’s review the decisions made by President Obama and Congressional Democrats over the past couple of years, and the disappointing results of their policy choices:

January 20, 2009President Obama sworn into office

President tells the American people in his Inaugural Address: “Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

Debt Held By Public = $6.31 trillion

February 17, 2009President Signs into Law the Spending Stimulus

The stimulus adds $821 billion in new spending according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The White House promises this infusion of spending and borrowing would keep unemployment rate below 8%. As millions of Americans are painfully aware, that promise was broken.

Debt Held by Public = $6.48 trillion

February 26, 2009
President Issues FY2010 Budget

The President’s budget adds $2.7 trillion in new debt in FY2010 and imposes $1.4 trillion in new taxes.

Debt Held by Public = $6.58 trillion

March 11, 2009
President Signs FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act

The massive spending bill includes 8,696 earmarks at a cost of $11 billion.

The Congressional Democrats’ budget calls for a $2 trillion debt increase in 2010, and another 8.9% increase in non-defense discretionary spending.

The reconciliation process is abused to later pave the way for health care overhaul to be jammed into law.

Of note: this is the last time Congressional Democrats will bother budgeting.

Debt Held by Public = $6.85 trillion

February 2, 2010
President Issues FY2011 Budget

The President’s budget more than doubles the debt; pushes the FY2011 deficit to a new record of $1.6 trillion; drives spending to a new record of $3.8 trillion in fiscal year 2011; and raises taxes by more than $2 trillion through 2020, under the administration’s own estimates.

Debt Held by Public = $7.85 trillion

March 23, 2010
President Signs Health-Care Overhaul Into Law

The massive new law adds $1.4 trillion in new spending over the next decade, and over $2.5 trillion once the law is fully implemented.

Despite sluggish economic growth and high unemployment, the law imposes over $500 billion in new tax hikes. CBO Director Elmendorf would later testify that the law would reduce employment by roughly half a percent – a reduction of approximately 800,000 jobs.

Debt Held by Public = $8.18 trillion

April 15, 2010
Congressional Democrats Decide Not to Do a Budget for FY2011

The 1974 Budget Act requires Congress to pass a budget each year by April 15.

In an unprecedented budget failure, House Democrats not only failed to pass a budget – they opted to not even propose a budget.

Debt Held by Public = $8.39 trillion

July 21, 2010
President Signs Financial Regulatory Overhaul Into Law

In addition to heightened regulatory uncertainty, the massive new law adds $10.2 billion in new spending.

Debt Held by Public = $8.69 trillion

February 14, 2011President Issues FY2012 Budget

The President’s budget yet again calls for the doubling of the debt in five years, and tripling the debt in ten years.

The President’s budget spends $47 trillion over the next decade, imposes over $1 trillion in new tax hikes, and fails to address the drivers of the debt.

Debt Held by Public = $9.45 trillion

April 13, 2011President Delivers Speech on Deficit Reduction

The President appears to abandon his own budget by offering a ‘framework’ that calls for additional tax increases, defense spending cuts, and Medicare price controls – yet lacks sufficient detail to back-up claims of deficit reduction.

Debt Held by Public = $9.65 trillion

April 15, 2011House Passes FY2012 Budget Resolution

The House-passed budget cuts $6.2 trillion in government spending over the next decade, saves Medicare, strengthens the social safety net, lifts the crushing burden of debt, and spurs economic growth and job creation.

Senate Democrats fail to meet their legal requirement to pass a budget by April 15.

Debt Held by Public = $9.68 trillion

April 18, 2011
S&P Issues Credit Warning on U.S. Debt

The rating agency sets off the latest alarm bells, warning of lawmakers of unsustainable fiscal course.

President Obama has still not proposed a credible budget; Senate Democrats have still not proposed any budget.

Debt Held by Public = $9.68 trillion

May 13, 2011
Medicare and Social Security Trustees Issue Warning of Looming Insolvency

According to the programs’ own trustees, the unsustainable future of Medicare and Social Security threatens the health and retirement security of America’s seniors.

President Obama and Congressional Democrats continue to engage in a partisan campaign to attack efforts to save and strengthen these critical programs – while offering no serious solutions of their own.

While the President’s plan to accelerate our nation toward bankruptcy is unanimously rejected, the stunt on the Senate floor reveals the bankruptcy of Senate Democrats’ ideas.

Senate Democrats have still not proposed any budget.

Debt Held by Public = $9.72 trillion

June 23, 2011
CBO Director Further Discredits President’s Fiscal Record

In testimony before the House Budget Committee, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf responds to questions on the President’s ‘Framework’: “We don’t estimate speeches. We need much more specificity than was provided in that speech for us to do our analysis.”

Debt Held by Public = $9.74 trillion

July 8, 2011
Unemployment Hits 9.2%; Day 800 Since Senate Democrats Last Passed A Budget

A devastating jobs report that shows the unemployment rate at 9.2% coincides with the 800th day since Senate Democrats last thought the federal government needed a budget.

Debt Held by Public = $9.75 trillion

July 11, 2011
Senator Conrad Gives Budget Speech on Senate Floor

On Day 803 since the Senate last passed a budget, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad takes to the Senate floor to deliver a speech about the Senate Democrats’ non-existent budget resolution.

Senator Conrad makes the case for imposing over $2 trillion in new taxes, but provides no actual budget resolution and no credible details.

Debt held by Public = $9.75 trillion

July 15, 2011
President Holds Press Conference: “We’re Running Out of Time” to Deal with Debt

President Obama tells reporters: “I’ve got reams of paper and printouts and spreadsheets on my desk, and so we know how we can create a package that solves the deficits and debt for a significant period of time. But in order to do that, we got to get started now.”

The American people have still not seen any “paper” or “printouts” of what specific spending cuts the President supports. The American people have still not seen any “spreadsheets” from the White House to corroborate their claims of having offered a deficit reduction plan.

While it’s long past time for Washington “to get started now” on tackling our debt problems, President Obama has still not proposed a credible budget, and Senate Democrats have still not proposed any budget.

Like this:

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Power cut to businesses and hospitals. The inability to heat homes in winter or cool them in summer. Debilitating blackouts. Signs of Armageddon? Maybe. But they’re also the potential results of a incapacitating cyber-attack on the nation’s power grids, an act that experts say could happen at any time.

“The U.S. government and the American people should be more concerned about this,” Rep. Jim Langevin (D., R.I), co-chair of the congressional cyber-security caucus, told TheStreet. “I don’t feel that the electric grid is nearly as secure as it needs to be.”

Despite new attempts to deliver cyber-security standards for power plants, legislators and security experts are warning of gaping holes that exist for hackers to exploit, further fueling concerns that critical U.S. infrastructures are at risk.

Langevin explained that a successful assault on the electric grid would dwarf recent attacks on corporations like Sony, Lockheed Martin and Sega, which resulted in compromised customer data, among other things.

Langevin says the the nightmare scenario resulting from parts of the grid knocked out could be devastating and wide-reaching. “It would affect the economy, and potentially, even cause loss of life,” he said. “Imagine, god forbid, that part of the country was without power in the middle of winter.”

“There’s absolutely nothing theoretical about the power grid being vulnerable,” added Joe Weiss, managing director of consultancy Applied Control Solutions. “This is not hypothetical — it’s very real.”

Rather than one single power system, a spiderweb of multiple networks comprises the U.S. electrical grid, which encompasses somewhere around 500 different companies. That’s about 5,700 power plants generating at least 1 megawatt, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with some plants using more than one generator.

Experts are concerned that the computer systems used to control plants across this sprawling network are prime targets for a sophisticated cyber-attack. A few years ago, the Department of Homeland Security replicated this type of attack, remotely accessing and destroying a generator. Specific details of the so-called Aurora test are hard to come by, but it allegedly involved a substation computer system, which was used to repeatedly connect and disconnect a generator to the grid. The test eventually wrecked the generator.

Another infecting type of attack to worry about is a worm, or self-replicating malware. Weiss points to Stuxnet, a Microsoft Windows worm that last year targeted industrial software and equipment, most notably within Iran’s nuclear program.

“Stuxnet was a very sophisticated, targeted attack,” said Weiss, adding that his concern is now for what he calls the “son of Stuxnet.” A massively complex set of code, Stuxnet has been touted as the first malware to attack industrial hardware, exploiting vulnerabilities in Windows. According to security specialist Symantec, the attack then modified code on control system technology from Siemens, leading to the destruction of centrifuges — equipment that spins objects around a fixed axis — used in Iran’s nuclear program.

Experts are also warning that the new breed of smart, highly-automated energy grids (clean energy-espousing “smart grids”) could open the door to attackers, citing the growing use of remote access technologies such as Bluetooth within power plants. “It makes the grid more vulnerable, there’s more points of attack,” said Weiss.

Attempts to Protect Us

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), an industry standards body that aims to keep the country’s power systems up and running, proposes standards for approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which it is then largely responsible for enforcing.

In an attempt to plug the power grid attack gap, NERC proposed a set of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards to federal regulators earlier this year. The suggested solution covers areas like physical security, systems management, incident reporting and recovery plans. Who exactly will be covered by these standards, however, is controversial.

NERC’s proposal to FERC calls for only power plants with a generating capacity above 1,500 megawatts to be covered by the cyber-security standards. NERC itself admits that this would cover just 29% of America’s power generator capacity.

(By way of comparison, 1 megawatt is enough energy to power 1,000 average homes, according to Con Edison, which expects a peak demand 13,275 megawatts in its service area this summer.)

“This means that 70% of the power plants will not even be looking at cyber security,” said Weiss. “NERC has effectively put out a roadmap for hackers to attack the grid.”

Rep. Langevin also thinks that the grid needs better protection. “I don’t think that that 1,500-megawatt standard is sufficient,” he said. However, “it’s a small step in the right direction.”

“As a citizen, I would be happier if a clear majority of the power my society relies on was secured from at least opportunistic cyber-attacks,” added Andrew Ginter, industrial security director at Waterfall Security Solutions in a recent blog post. “The new … rule will not bring this about.”

The Commission, however, has questioned NERC on the 1,500-megawatt threshold, asking for more details in a filing earlier this year. In its response, NERC acknowledged that the proposal “does not capture all assets in North America,” but maintained that this is still a “significant step” toward better security.

In a blog post last week, Weiss also argued that the number of facilities covered could be less than the 29% cited by NERC. Alluding to a recent survey of NERC’s membership, Weiss said that, out of just under 11,000 power generating units, around 600 would be classified as “critical assets” that require cyber-security protection.

FERC declined to provide comment for this story, explaining that it is unable to discuss pending proposals. NERC has not yet responded to TheStreet’s request for comment.

Ginter nonetheless acknowledges that the new standards are “much better than nothing” noting that, without regulation, many utilities would do little to secure their power station control systems. The NERC CIP standards, he adds, are designed to catch the stragglers — companies that don’t have any procedures in place.

Some firms are taking grid security into their own hands. San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corp., recently hired a former Sears Holdings security executive to serve as the company’s CIO. And The Southern Company, an Atlanta-based utility with more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, has even hired hackers to identify vulnerabilities.

Uncovering the Disruptors

Opinions are divided on who could attack the power grid.

Many experts think that the extensive research and technology resources needed would make an enemy nation the likeliest perpetrator. North Korea, for example, was suspected of being behind the major denial of-service attack on the U.S. government in 2009. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal, citing intelligence officials, has reported foreign “cyber-spies” from China, Russia and other countries infiltrating the U.S. energy grid.

Weiss, however, thinks that smaller, less well-resourced groups, could also perpetrate an attack. “We can now go to the Internet and get these exploits without having to be a national lab or a nation state,” he said. “You don’t have to be an Iran or an Al Qaeda or anything else to do this.”

“The Pentagon wanted to make it clear that we reserve the right to respond with conventional munitions or any other conventional means,” said Harry Raduege, a retired Lieutenant General in the U.S. Air Force, who is now chairman of the Deloitte Center for Cyber Innovation.

Raduege, however, thinks that it is not just the U.S. power grid that’s at risk. “There could be attacks on any of our critical infrastructure like telecoms, financial systems and, transportation and government services,” he told TheStreet. “We have heard about weapons of mass destruction, but cyber terrorism could create a weapon of mass disruption.”

Like this:

Gold surged to an all-time high above $1,600 an ounce Monday, extending a record rally as investors sought a safe haven on fears that U.S. lawmakers could fail to raise the debt limit, resulting in a default.

Lilli Day | Photodisc | Getty Images

Gold rallied even as the U.S. dollar strengthened, helping the precious metal hit record highs across a number of major currencies, namely euro, British sterling, South African rand and the Canadian dollar.

The latest rally, which began three weeks ago on euro zone debt worries, has powered gold into uncharted territory. Europe has been struggling to put together a second bailout for Greece and contain its debt crisis.

Share this:

Like this:

11:19 PM, Jul 13, 2011

MACCLENNY, Fla. — Miranda Wilkerson will turn 4 in a couple of days, but right now her mother’s family doesn’t know if it will be there to wish her a happy birthday in person.

This month, a judge awarded custody to Miranda’s father.

Miranda’s mother, Trista Crews Coleman, was killed in a car wreck one month after Miranda was born. “She’s been with me since she drew breath,” said Rita Manning, Crews Coleman’s mom and Miranda’s grandmother.

Manning said the legal mess began in 1997 when Crews Coleman was 14 and met Donald Coleman, 38. “Next thing I know, I’ve got a grandchild on the way.”

When Coleman and the teen married in May 1997, Manning signed off on it because of the baby on the way. “I signed for them to get married for that reason only.”

But Coleman was arrested, and court records show he pleaded guilty to a sex crime involving a child under 16. He got probation and had to register as a sex offender. The Colemans had three children together, but in 2005 Manning said her daughter left him.

“She couldn’t afford a divorce (because) she was supporting three kids on their own,” she said.

Two months before Crews Coleman died, her husband filed for divorce; the petition noted that she was pregnant with another man’s child.

According to her family, after Crews Coleman died, Coleman pushed for custody of Miranda when Manning tried to adopt her.

“Even though they were divorcing, even though he knows she was pregnant by another man, he still had to be notified,” she said.

Coleman, now a registered sex offender with a history of domestic violence and aggravated assault, is able to get custody of Miranda because he was still married to Crews Coleman at the time of Miranda’s birth and is considered the legal father.

“Her whole world is here (so) how could a judge do that?” said Manning.

At Coleman’s Georgia home, a woman answered the door and said Coleman wasn’t there.

“I have a feeling why you are here,” she said. “I’m not gonna say the word and get custody of a 4-year-old.”

When asked why Coleman wanted Miranda, she did not respond. Coleman’s attorney declined to comment, saying adoption cases are private.

Manning is not giving up. She tells Miranda, “Nana is doing everything she can so you don’t got to leave me..and I won’t let go.”

Miranda’s biological father told us he has hired an attorney to try and get Miranda out of the sex offender’s home.

Baez was on a cell phone and it faded in and out at times, at one point Geraldo told him to “stand still or by the window there“, which to me implies that he was familiar with the room that Baez was in, it wasn’t that he said there but how he said it. He also asked Baez how Casey appeared to be doing, Baez responded, “I’m not a Therapist, I’m a Lawyer”.

Baez also denied that there was a million dollar deal other than that he just spewed the same old rhetoric about “respect the jury decision”, “Casey’s perfect”, blah blah blah, “She has certain rights. We are going to make sure she exercises these rights.”

After he finished with Baez he spoke with his brother Craig in Florida which I found much more interesting. The conversation was about where Casey was and the rumors associated with where she might be. Craig brought up that rumors have it that Casey is with Geraldo and said she’s not with you Geraldo…or is she? Geraldo hung is shaking head and mumbled something to the effect that his wife wouldn’t let him bring her home and seemed to take a few seconds to compose himself from that question. I’ve been trying my hardest to find video of that, if and when I do, I’ll post it because I think it’s very telling that yes, he does have her or that he was involved in hiding her.

After reviewing this for the umpteenth time, listen to the first couple of minutes when Geraldo asks Baez how Casey is, that’s the part where he responds, “I’m not a therapist, I’m a lawyer”, well he goes on to say that it’s better left up to the mental health professional, note that he says professional, not professionals. Could it be she’s in a clinic somewhere? Maybe Prescottt, Arizona?